It's kind of confusing but, as you probably know, the Filene's Basement chain has been struggling. It had closed two of its three Baltimore-area stores, leaving only the Downtown Baltimore location at Lockwood Place open.
Last week, a bankruptcy court auctioned Filene's off and the winning bidder, the Men's Wearhouse chain, announced it would close the Downtown store. They didn't say why, and you can never really know in these situations. Of course, people tried to read into it. Was this a blow to Downtown? What's wrong with Downtown that they didn't keep the store open? In all probability, it had to do with what other stores the company already has in the area, its distribution system, or the like. But we'll never really know.
And the point is moot because last week's auction was challenged and the court held a new auction today. This one was won by the clothing retailer, Syms, which, we've been told by insiders, will keep the Downtown store open.
We worked very hard behind the scenes to make this happen, as did the Mayor, BDC, the Lockwood Place developers, and the employees of the Filene's store themselves.
There'll be more about this in the press, I'm sure. For the meantime, let's savor the good news.
-Mike Evitts
Last week, a bankruptcy court auctioned Filene's off and the winning bidder, the Men's Wearhouse chain, announced it would close the Downtown store. They didn't say why, and you can never really know in these situations. Of course, people tried to read into it. Was this a blow to Downtown? What's wrong with Downtown that they didn't keep the store open? In all probability, it had to do with what other stores the company already has in the area, its distribution system, or the like. But we'll never really know.
And the point is moot because last week's auction was challenged and the court held a new auction today. This one was won by the clothing retailer, Syms, which, we've been told by insiders, will keep the Downtown store open.
We worked very hard behind the scenes to make this happen, as did the Mayor, BDC, the Lockwood Place developers, and the employees of the Filene's store themselves.
There'll be more about this in the press, I'm sure. For the meantime, let's savor the good news.
-Mike Evitts
